Our popular “Dirty Penny Ale” is a hearty, but never heavy “black’n’tan” style* which is mixture of 60% Ten Penny/40% our own signature stout. This beer is also available year-round at your local bar or favorite beer store.

Overall: This drinks almost like a good Euro dark lager or schwarzbier. For a black and tan, this is fairly good and would be one of the first black an tans I would reach for. For an overall beer this is ok. I much prefer Olde Burnside's Scotch ales more. (591 characters)

Root beer colored with a light brown/beige foamy head that rises up to a thick half-inch that longers long, and leaves spotty lace down the sides of the glass as I drink. The aroma is a rich, roasted malt. Mouthfeel is just a bit watery, not overly carbonated, but enjoyable. Flavor is a little smokey upfront, perhaps a bit chalky, with dark malts swirling in with brown sugar and dark chocolate. An understated hoppy undercurrent flows beneath and lingers a bit in the aftertaste. Yeast flavors seem under control on this one, and a pint is able to be poured without it foaming over. If this is truly the next incarnation of the Tartan Ale, it's a vast improvement. (667 characters)

Drink local is my motto! I picked this growler up off the shelf at the local package store. The growler had no freshness indicators which worries me slightly. In the growler format the shelf life on this beer might not be very long.

The appearance is darker than i would expect from a black & tan but in my opinion it looks very appetizing. The head is a little much for me. I prefer not to have to wait for it to settle but it could have been my pouring method. Nice tan color with not very much lacing.

The smell primarily consists of toffee. There are also notes of coffee and chocolate. The hop profile is lacking, even for this style.

The taste again mirrors the aroma, tons of toffee and caramel notes, with a slight background of roasted coffee and milk chocolate. Again not very much hop profile comes through, but the beer is not cloying.

The mouth feel of the beer is lighter than I would expect from it's appearance. Of course carbonation is on the lighter end, not only because of the style but also the packaging method. This is not terribly far off style.

Dirty penny is absolutely a sessionable beer. I like this because it isn't light in color, it is full flavored, and local! Despite the fact that I wish my local beers offered better taste qualities and more variety, I will always support them. I will be picking this growler up again soon. (1,364 characters)

Pours a dark brown, decent bubbly head, good retention. Smells of sweet chocolate and coffee malt, caramel, hint of smokiness. Tastes of chocolatey and caramel like malt. Caramel sweetness dominates with just a hint of smoke. Moderate earthy bitterness giving way to a fairly neutral finish, touch of roasty dryness. Fairly high carbonation for the style, moderate mouthfeel.

An ok beer, way too highly carbonated, luckily this faded with some time. Fairly sweet and pretty one noted, but definitely drinkable. (511 characters)

Growler from Ryan & Casey in Greenfield. Seems to be a fair amount of promotion going on by this brewery. Bottle came with a descriptive card, giving a brief history of the brewery and the beer.

Deep, deep red, almost black appearance. No head or retention for that matter. So few B&T's on BA, it's hard to know what "typical" characteristics are.

Smokey, toffee, and candy cane, a very complex mixture. Taste leans a bit to the burnt side of caramel; the stout seems to be more porter than stout. The sweetness is from the ale, which I have also had.

A fine tasting beer seems a bit confused as to what it is. A little too heavy for what it is. (654 characters)

Sampled on October 6, 2011 from an over-the-counter growler available in a local beer store. The pour is a nicely dark brown color with bubbles collecting at the bottom and slowly sneaking up top to the tan, silky head. The aroma brings out malts, earth, and a dark fruit like plum. The body was thinner than I would have liked considering 40% of this black and tan is from a stout. The taste had this sickly sweet flavor which might have been more from yeast that hadn't quite matured. Connecticut recently allowed growler sales outside of pubs and I wonder if the trip to New Hampshire via a distributor might have tainted it. I bet it is bette on tap at the brewpub. (669 characters)

Picked this up on a recent trip to CT... Any black and tan that is 60% Scotch Ale has to be pretty good, right?

A - A very active cascading pour... Audibly fizzy... Starts to settle a bit at around four fingers worth of light brown colored with a very rocky top reminiscent of a very thick batter... Impressive retention... The color is a deep dark brown with a faint reddish hue that lets a bit of light leak in around the bottom of the glass... A bit of lacing clings to the glass...

T - A bit of coffee... A bit of roasted malt... Some sugary caramel... Some chocolate notes... A hint of hazelnut... A very very subtle smokiness... A nice bit of depth and complexity...

M - On the lighter side of medium bodied... Muted carbonation... Quite quaffable... A bit of sleekness... Rather smooth... Consistent with each sip...

D - A very nice brew... Lots of flavor and character... Super sessionable given it's 5% ABV... This one blurs many a style guideline, but there's no denying it's a rather good brew... I can easily recommend picking this one up and will gladly do so if I'm every passing through CT again... (1,351 characters)

I have enjoyed several growlers of this beer. It pours dark, with a nice head and good carbonation at first, but it goes flat if you don't finish the growler in 1 night. Probably normal, but too bad since I can't buy it in smaller containers.

Taste is smooth, with roasted chocolate flavor, and very drinkable. Not so drinkable that I can pound away the whole growler in one sitting, but very enjoyable as a refreshing beverage in warmer weather. (447 characters)

I had this at whistling willies in cold spring.a--very dark red and brown with limited head. Can barely see through.S- slight nut scent.t- nice nutty and toffee taste. Crisp and malty. Has a nice smooth and balanced very. Very easy to drink. Very good on a spring day (270 characters)

Presentation:64 oz. growler poured into an American pint glass. No freshness date or inclination to the style.

Visual:Wow. Pours thick into a pitch black body with slight brown hues when held to the light. Massive 3 finger head surprised me, khaki-brown with nice retention. Average lacing and a nice bubbly cap stays on top of the pint till the end.

Aroma:Buttery diacetyl and rich biscuity malt punches the nose. Soft cocoa and espresso beans in the middle with hop earthiness around the edges. A slight smokiness piques, but doesn't linger. Slightly boozy in the finish. I'm curious to try the two ales on their own and compare which notes come from which brew.

Taste:Porter-like chocolate and caramel malts create coffee, toffee, roasted almond, vanilla, caramel, and biscuit/bready flavors. Plenty of sweet flavors, but not overly sweet/sugary. Hops provide a decent balance with earthy peat flavors along the back of the tongue. Slight astringency between the hops and darkly roasted malt. There is a faint flash of dark berries somewhere in the middle, but has a hard time being distinguishable with all of that roasted malt. Full bodied with a creamy/oily mouthfeel. Rich chocolatey finish with a boozy cocoa aftertaste.

Overall:Great version of the bottled Black & Tan style. Normally I can enjoy this style bottled, but am never impressed. However, this definitely took me by surprise; worth buying again. Rich body and a great aroma. Despite it's heaviness, it's extremely drinkable and easy to put back a few pints - glad it came in 64 oz's.Would pair greatly with any savory or hearty dish, such as corned beef hash, clam chowder, shepherd's pie, etc. Would also stand up to rich chocolate/coffee based desserts such as chocolate cheesecake or tiramisu.

A- massive head, solid inch and a half of thick dirty white foam. Almost black in color, charcoal/black licorice, hardly affected by light when held up. Some bubbles collected along the bottom of the glass but none racing up the edges.

S- faint sweetness, molasses maybe. Hard to fully describe the scent other than it definitely had some sweet tones to it.

T- pretty sweet in taste. not rich or bitter. most tastes are faint and subtle of molasses or chocolate. Complex blending of subtle tastes with no single one overpowering the rest.

M- not creamy but not thin either. A perfect balance. mild dryness left on tongue. Faint leftover taste in mouth made me take sips quicker than usual to get it back on my tongue for identification.

D- bought the growler hoping to split it between two nights, but enjoyed it too much to put down. Just subtle and not overpowering enough to pour glass after glass, but not weak enough to mistake for poor quality. I will gladly get it another one! (1,054 characters)